Djke  University  Libraries 


D03212458P 


/VuJ     - 


■t 


MA.IORFTV  REPORT 


COMMITTEE  ON  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS. 


The  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  to  whom  was  referred  certain 
resolutions  relating  to  the  true  policy  of  the  Avar,  and  recommending 
to  the  President  the  issuance  of  a  proclamation  touching  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  and  the  opening  of 
the  market  of  the  South  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Northwestern 
States,  upon  certain  terms  and  conditions,  have  had  the  same  under 
consideration,  and  now  report  back  said  resolutions,  with  one  or  two 
slight  amendments,  and  recommend  that  they  be  adopted.  The  expe- 
diency of  conducting  the  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  with  all  possi- 
ble activity,  and  of  carrying  that  war  into  the  enemy's  country,  so 
soon  as  the  same  shall  be  found  practicable,  is  believed  to  be  now 
universally  admitted  by  all  enlightened  men  who  have  given  their  at- 
tention to  the  subject.  It  is  evident  that  we  must  rely  alone  upon 
our  own  energies  for  success  in  the  struggle  of  arms  which  is  now  in 
progress.  In  the  present  condition  of  affairs  it  is  quite  manifest  that 
in  order  to  bring  the  sanguinary  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged  to 
an  early  termination,  it  will  be  necessary  that  every  portion  of  our 
army  should  be  kept  in  a  state  of  constant  readiness  for  active  exer- 
tion ;  and  that  no  opportunity  should  be  neglected  of  striking  the 
forces  of  the  enemy,  wherever  to  be  found  upon  Southern  soil,  with 
that  boldness  and  heroic  energy  which  are  so  certain  to  secure  to  our 
arms  the  most  signal  success.  It  is  equally  manifest  that  the  enemy 
will  never  be  willing  to  desist  from  the  unjust  and  ferocious  war  which 
they  are  now  waging,  until  the  evils  and  inconveniences  thereof  shall 
have  been  brought  home  fully  to  themselves.  When  our  valiant  and 
disciplined  armies  (enhanced  in  numbers  and  in  strength,  as  it  is 
hoped  they  will  shortly  be.)  shall  have  once  found  their  way  to  the 
heart  of  the  enemy's  country,  and  have  inflicted  a  just  retaliation 
upon  those  who  have  so  ruthlessly  ravaged  our  territories,  pillaged 
our  towns,  and  desolated  our  homes,  it  is  to  be  reasonably  expected 
that  even  they  will   at  last  be  able   to  discern  the  rank  injustice  and 


brutal   cruelty   which  they  have   compelled  as  to  experience,  and  for 

the  perpetration  of  which  they  have  not4been  heretofore  subjected  to 
anything  like  adequate*  punishment. 

Your  committee  are  well  satisfied  that  the  issuing  of  some  such 
proclamation  by  the  President,  as  that  described  in  the  resolutions 
referred  to  them,  at  such  time  as  he  shall  deem  expedient,  could  not 
hut  be  attended  with  the  most  salutary  effects.  It  is  an  undoubted 
fact  that  the  government  at  Washington,  aided  by  unscrupulous  local 
demagogues  in  the  Northwestern  States,  has  succeeded  to  a  conside- 
rable extent  in  deluding  the  people  of  that  region  into  a  general  be- 
lief" that,  should  we  succeed  in  our  struggle  for  independence,  it  is 
the  intention  of  the  Government  and  people  of  the  Confederate  States 
to  shut  them  out  from  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  river, 
and  its  great  tributaries  ;    and   though  the   Provisional  Congres 

ies  long  ago  emphatically  negatived  this  idea,  by  well  known 
of  formal  legislation,  yet  your  committee  is  assured  that  the 
delusion  on  this  subject  still  continues  to  exist  among  the  people  of 
the  Northwest,  and  that  the  gross  misapprehension  in  regard  to  the 
intentions  and  policy  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America,  thus 
gendered  and  kept  in  existence  by  wicked  and  designing  men.  has 
operated  most  effectively  in  prompting  the  people  of  the  Northwestern 
-  (so  closely  connected  with  the  South  heretofore,  both  by  geo- 
graphical and  political  ties,)  to  contribute  freely  both  in  men  and 
money  to  the  prosecution  of  a  war  which,  if  successful  on  the  part  of 
those  with  whom  it  has  originated,  would  be  eventually  as  disastrous 
in  its  effects  to  the  people  of  the  Northwestern  States  themselves  as 
to  those  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  It  is  gratifying  to 
discover  that  high-spirited  and  intelligent  public  men  in  several  of 
the  Northwestern  States  have  of  late,  become  exceedingly  active  in 
their  endeavors  to  discourage  and  suppress  the  ferocious  war  spirit 
heretofore  raging  among  their  fellow-citizens,  and  that  their  honest 
and  patriotic  efforts  have  been  already  attended  with  the  most  marked 
success.  Such  a  proclamation  as  that  recommended  in  the  resolutions 
referred  to  this  committee,  it  is  confidently  believed,  would  have  a  ten- 
dency greatlv  to  strengthen  the  efforts  of  the  advocates  of  peace  in 
the  Northwestern  States,  be  calculated  to  bring  those  States  quickly 
into  amicable  relations  with  the  States  of  the  South,  withdraw  them 
ultimately  altogether  from  their  present  injurious  political  connection 
with  the  States  of  the  North  and  East,  with  which  they  have  really 
so  little  in  common,  and  thus  enable  us  to  dictate  the  terms  of  a  just 
and  honorable  peace  from  the  great  commercial  emporiums  of  that  re- 
gion through  whose  influence  mainly  has  this  wicked  and  unnatural 
war  been  thus  far  kept  in  progress. 

All  of  which  is  most  respectfully  submitted. 

H.  S.   FOOTE,  Chairman. 


RESOLUTIONS. 


*e^ 


Resolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House  the  true  policy  of  the 
present  war  imperatively  requires  that  the  movements  of  our  armies 
in  the  field  should  everywhere  be  as  active  and.  aggressive  as  would  be 
at  all  consistent  with  sound  and  enlightened  discretion — striking  at 
the  forces  of  the  enemy  boldly  and  vigorously  wherever  they  may  be 
found  on  Southern  soil,  and  delaying  nowhere  long  enough  to  allow 
to  our  merciless  foes  an  opportunity  of  devastating  the  most  fertile 
districts  of  the  South,  and  perchance  of  ultimately  obtaining  rein- 
forcements which  may  make  it  difficult  to  drive  them  beyond  our  con- 
fines, without  such  an  expenditure  of  the  precious  blood  of  our  pa- 
triot soldiery  as  would  not  be  now  necessary  for  their  expulsion  or 
capture. 

Amended,  as  proposed,  the  second  and  third  resolutions  will  read  as 
follows,  viz.  : 

Resolved,  That  should  the  deluded  Government  at  Washington, 
still  obstinately  continue  to  refuse  us  peace,  it  is  the  evident  policy 
of  the  Confederate  Government  to  invade  the  country  of  the  enemy, 
with  a  view  to  obtaining  complete  "  indemnity  for  the  past  and  secu- 
rity for  the  future." 

Resolved,  That  the  President  be  requested,  if  consistent  with  his 
own  views  of  propriety,  at  such  time  as  he  shall  deem  most  appro- 
priate, to  address  a  formal  proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Northwestern  States,  embodying  the  acts  of  the  Provisional  Congress 
relating  to  this  subject,  proposing  to  guaranty  to  the  citizens  of  all 
said  States  resident  upon  the  border  of  said  (the  Mississippi)  river  and 
its  tributaries,  as  shall  not  be  at  war  at  the  time  with  the  Confederate 
States,  in  the  most  effectual  and  satisfactory  mode,  the  peaceful  navi- 
gation of  the  said  river  and  its  tributaries  ;  and  it  is  further  requested 
of  the  President  that  he  will  also  make  known,  in  said  proclamation, 
the  willingness  of  the  Government  and  people  of  the  Confederate 
States  to  enter  hereafter  into  a  reciprocity  commercial  treaty  or 
treaties  with  any  one  or  more  of  them. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
pH8.5 


